


Rejected

by TheAzureFox



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: F/M, Ghost Girl's miserable adventures in unrequited love, and if you look closely there's a fifth pairing here, this is all unrequited love folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 08:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12791049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAzureFox/pseuds/TheAzureFox
Summary: Ema suffers with her (twice) unrequited love.Shoichi's just there to help.





	Rejected

**Author's Note:**

> The plan was to explore Playmaker/Ghost Girl. 
> 
> That plan casually went to smithereens the moment I decided to smuggle unrequited hireshipping in here. One day I may do this ship better justice but only if canon gives me better material to work with that doesn't just make me think that Ema's affections are "one-sided" towards Playmaker.

Ema feels the phantom touch of fingers on her hand.

It’s hard not to remember Playmaker grabbing her into the air and yanking her up, their gazes meeting at eyelevel in the midst of a data storm. It’s hard not to remember the vulnerability she’d shown before him, the shock and awe as he sacrificed his life for hers, bringing her up to safety.

She sits on the edge of a railing and tries not to feel her heart stutter in her chest as she holds a cup of coffee in her hands and observes one Yusaku Fujiki.

It’s stupid, honestly. She shouldn’t be feeling this way. Yusaku was not Playmaker. They were one and the same, yes, but the boy before her was not the man she thought she fell in love with.

Still, it’s hard to distract herself from the stupid curiosity she’s invested in him. Ever since that moment in the data storm, she’s become intrigued by Playmaker and the façade underneath. And, in a way, she found him.

He was sixteen years old and nothing like the man whose grip haunted her skin.

He was also the same person who stole her heart the moment he saved her life.

And, he was nowhere as interested in her as she was in him.

It hurts to say the truth but she won’t deny it.

She stirs a spoon in her coffee, stares into her reflection on a pool of brown and then looks up again.

Aoi Zaizen manifests before Yusaku, her brother at her side. They are greeted by Shoichi as per usual and then there is a casual exchange of information. When all is said and done, the group splits up. Akira parts ways, nodding to Ema as he departs. She nods back, repeating the formal gesture as she sips from her cup. Shoichi disappears into the hotdog truck and Aoi…Aoi takes Yusaku’s hand and smiles.

It’s almost unbearable at the way he smiles back.

Ema sips again and again, trying to ignore the squeezing in her chest and the way her heart stumbles at such an action. She’s agonized, contorting with all sorts of emotions that fluctuate between _envious_ and _forlorn_ but she keeps to herself.

After all, she’s known this all along. Her love is unrequited. It’s a barren truth that somehow manage to both scorch and freeze Ema’s heart. Yusaku has found himself in Aoi and so has Aoi in Yusaku. They are a pair, two lovebirds in a nest and, even if they are nowhere close to considering themselves as “one”, they certainly act like it.

(She dreams of starry skies and midnight moons. She dreams of thumping hearts and intertwined fingers and Playmaker’s gaze on her own as she tucks a piece of pink hair behind a red-scorched ear.)

The woman slumps down, sipping from her coffee through a straw. She contemplates everything that has led up to such a point and then lets out an extravagant sigh, burying her head in her hands.

“Oh…Gods…”

(She wonders about her choices in men and tries not to see the obvious. Akira is engaged to a woman from his work. Playmaker is falling in love with a blue angel. And she…she is _alone_.)

Someone takes a seat beside her, the scraping of chair leg against stone calling to her attention. She perks her head up, all senses on alert, but relaxes when she realizes the newcomer is not a stranger.

“Shoichi?”

“Hey,” he says softly, holding up a glass of water in salutation. “You looked lonely.”

“Ah, do I?” there’s a bitter smile on rose-red lips.

“Thought I’d come over to visit. Hear your troubles…or something.”

She leans forward and closes her eyes. “How nice of you.” She opens them. “What, did Playmaker take pity on me?”

The man sighs, waving a flippant hand. “No. He’s aware of how you feel but, honestly, I don’t think he realizes how _bad_ you’ve fallen for him. It doesn’t take a genius to see that you’re still fawning all over him.”

“That obvious, hmm?”

He observes her with silver eyes. “Well, to be honest with you, it looks like I’m the only one who’s taken notice. Yusaku himself already knows but it’s been pretty clear since, well…”

“Since I confessed to him?”

“…Right.”

(Ghost Girl brings Playmaker to a pier in Link VRAINS. The man accompanies her out of obligation, honoring her request for a favor. It’s a quiet, peaceful place free of pesky news reporters. And, it’s there that she confesses her heart to him.

“I-“ her voice shakes but she continues on. She’s done this once before. She can do it again. “I’m in love with you.”

His cold gaze flicks over her and his A.I. begins to have a fit of laughter that’s quickly silenced by the man – _boy_ – himself. Playmaker's gaze softens with sincerity, taking her words without a hint of snide derision.

“I’m sorry, Ghost Girl,” Playmaker begins and Ema knows it’s all the same words she's heard once before, “but I can’t reciprocate your feelings.”)

Ema rubs her chin and lets out another sigh. “I knew what I was getting into. I knew it and I went through with it and, in the end, it’s all the same again, eh?”

The man before her tilts his head. “Again? You mean this is not the first time you’ve gotten rejected?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

(Sharp suit, musky cologne. Akira Zaizen stands out of place at their secret hideout like a prince in a commoner’s village. Still, under Ema’s invitation, he stands as ready as a soldier, ignoring the rusted pipes and creaking floor panels despite his seeming affection towards anything _proper_.

Ema takes it slow. She starts off with simple conversation, pulls him into a casual chat and then eases him in the direction she wants to reach.

Her heart is wild in her chest. She’s not the type to confess her emotions. She’s the type to say what’s on her mind, yes, but never once did that meaning being straight to the point like her sharp-as-a-tack friend.

Said friend is not easily circumvented by her words. “Ema,” he begins, more exasperated at her stalling techniques than anything else, “what do you want from me?”

A breath in. A breath out.

This is it.

This is the moment.

“Akira, I…”)

Shoichi props his chin on his hands and searches her with gentle scrutiny. His face is almost unreadable, lips tugged into the slightest hint of a sincere smile. “You look like you just got drenched in water.”

“I certainly _feel_ like it,” she shakes her head, purses her lips, and stares out into the ocean beyond.

(“I’m sorry, Ema but I-” Akira looks to the side and it’s almost as if he feels _guilty_ for uttering such words, “-I cannot return your affections.”

She’s stunned and shocked and she clutches at her chest like she’s been shot with an arrow and maybe she has, maybe she hasn’t, but it still _hurts_ to hear.

Akira leaves for SOL and their hideout becomes a barren wasteland of cold reminders that leave Ema shivering. He’s not there anymore, he’s not, but she still feels the touch of his breath on her ear, still hears his voice behind her and she hugs herself because he’s not _here_ and yet somehow he _is_.

She learns six years later that he’s become engaged to some woman she’s never heard of. He is more than happy to gush the story out to her, dazed and red-faced as he relates his proposal plans to her with the enthusiasm of a child learning how to make macaroni drawings. She listens and she hears and she nods but all she can hear is the _why can’t you love me too?_ that echoes off in the back of her mind at the end of his every sentence.)

“First Akira and now Playmaker…who next? Brave Max? Revolver?”

Shoichi raises a hand. “How about a handsome hot dog hacker? Perhaps the very same one who runs Café Nagi, if I may be so blunt?”

Her gaze flicks over him and his cheeks flush pink. She sidles off the railing and approaches him with her mouth forming into a little ‘o’. “My, Shoichi, are you…are you suggesting you’ll be my next crush? My next rejecter?”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to say that I’d reject you…”

“And why not? Everyone else has. Even if I developed a crush on you then, undoubtedly, you’ll end up just like him,” she jabs a thumb in the direction of Yusaku and Aoi, “a thief of my heart and yet cruelly in love with someone else.”

Shoichi scratches the back of his head and lets out a nervous laugh. “Wow, you really have no hope, do you?”

“Once you fall in love twice and get rejected twice…yeah, I’d say I have next to no hope now.”

“That’s not true!” Shoichi protests and she raises an eyebrow at his outburst. “I’m sure…I’m sure you’ll find someone out there who is in love with you just as much you are with them.”

There’s a moment of silence and, then, Ema Bessho bursts out into laughter, keeling over and clutching at her sides. The man beside her is flabbergasted, staring with wide eyes and a gaping jaw.

“W-What’s so funny?”

“I-I’m sorry it’s just….” She wipes at the corner of her eyes. “I never expected _you,_ of all people, to say something so _cheesy_.”

“Well, is there anything so wrong with that?”

“Eh, I rather like it. It makes me feel…strangely optimistic.” Ema shrugs. “Perhaps you’re right and I’ll find someone. But, knowing my luck, perhaps I won’t.”

(She thinks of Akira. Strong, firm Akira. She thinks of Playmaker. Cold, calculating Playmaker. She thinks of a third man standing by and holding out a hand to her and she clutches at her heart and sighs as she accepts this humble offering.)

“Yeah,” Shoichi’s silver gaze catches hers and she meets it with a warm smile. “One day then, maybe?”

And she grins, sliding off the railing to gesture him forward and towards the hot dog stand. “Maybe!” she agrees, a sudden lightness in her chest as she bounds forward, Shoichi struggling to follow behind.

Her hands tentatively touch her chest.

_Maybe…_

She looks back and over at Shoichi. However, as she watches him trip over his feet in a daze, she shakes her head at herself and continues onwards.

_Or maybe not…?_

**Author's Note:**

> I wish Ema was a bit more transparent on her feelings towards Playmaker bc after like episode 17 it seems all interest she had in him kind of tapered off >:O
> 
> To be fair, she really hasn't shown up since (w/ the exception of one shot in episode 24 and her lecture to Aoi in 25 + her presence in the Akira vs. Playmaker arc) but I kind of want to know how she'll react next time Playmaker comes to her/she comes to Playmaker. I'm hoping her interest in Playmaker is more "hey, you earned my respect so you're someone I'll keep my eye on in the future to earns some bonus points with" rather than "hey, i just met you and basically am infatuated with you but hi???". 
> 
> After rewatching episodes 15+16 I feel like I might jump on the shipping bandwagon for them but the issue is I can't quite see it lining up with canon and so, if anything, I only see it as unrequited love on Ema's side rn lol


End file.
